Kevek Posted August 30, 2005 Posted August 30, 2005 I'm having some memory issues, and I believe the root of the problem is the DFI NF4 SLI-DR. I'm not sure though, and I'm seriously hoping some of you will have some insights for me. I got the components in my sig half a week ago and assembled the comptuer with no problem (Lian-Li cases are very nice, btw). I updated the BIOS to 6/23/2005 with no serious problems, and it recognized my AMD X2 4600+ All was going well during the Windows installation, until I had to reboot. Upon reboot I got the BSOD, citing a physical memory dump. I got a little worried and tried to re-install windows (after attempting to boot into safe mode to no avail) hoping it was just a wonky driver or something. (By the way at this point I am using the memory in DIMM 2 and 4 Dual Channel. It detected the memory at DDR 400 Dual-Channel 128 bit. With the correct timings) It happened again, and I started reading things on www.dfi-street.com hoping to find some answers. After a while I determined that my problem was indeed likely memory. So I ran MemTest, and for several runs I got no errors. So I upped the voltage from 2.6V to 3.0V just to see what would happen (someone mentioned something like that might help on these boards.) And lo and behold it booted to Windows. Unfortunitally, it only booted to windows once, as on the second boot, I again encountered the BSOD. So after some fiddling, I eventually attempted, just for kicks, lowering the speed on the RAM. So I lowered my RAM from auto-detect in the Genie BIOS to DDR 200 and it started working fine. Now I, of course, didn't want to be stuck at DDR200, especially since I love playing video games, and that just hurts. With my roomate we played with the location of the RAM, we put it into Single Channel config and set everything to auto and the voltage to 2.6 and it booted. Likewise, each stick of RAM by itself at 2.6V and auto-detect speed booted as well. So we tried DIMM slots 1 and 3 (which is where they are currently) and tried DDR400 again. But we got the BSOD. At this point I lowered it slowly, and found that if I put it at DDR366 (I believe thats the number?) it worked. It was stable for 2ish days at this point, and I was ready to accept DDR366 in a Dual Channel Configuration (I ran PRIME95 for 8 hours, 6 hours, and a 1.5 hour session and it passed completely.) Now this morning windows started acting funny (Text dissapearing on boot, some programs not running very well (read loading slow). After another reboot to regain my text I got the BSOD again. Then I nearly cried. So I turned down my RAM to DDR 333, and now it seems to be stable. But then again, it was stable before. Does anyone know anything I can try to keep my system stable and get the best preformance without (hopefully) sacrificing the life of my RAM by upping the Volts to ungodly levels? At this point I'm wondering if I should just try another Mobo, but I would definitely prefer not to because other than this one (albeit large) issue, I really like the DFI NF4 SLI-DR motherboard. Thanks for any help, Kevek (P.S. If I'm missing any information in my sig/description I will be more than glad to provide it if you inform me... and thanks again.) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angry_Games Posted August 30, 2005 Posted August 30, 2005 here's some stock speed settings for you to try with your setup: Genie BIOS Settings: FSB Bus Frequency - 200 LDT/FSB Frequency Ratio - AUTO CPU/FSB Frequency Ratio - AUTO PCI eXpress Frequency - 100Mhz CPU VID StartUp Value - 1.500v CPU VID Control - 1.200v CPU VID Special Control - Above VID * 110% LDT Voltage Control - 1.20v Chip Set Voltage Control - 1.50v DRAM Voltage Control - 2.80v DRAM Configuration Settings: DRAM Frequency Set - 200=RAM/FSB:01/01 Command Per Clock (CPC) - Enable CAS Latency Control (Tcl) - 2.0 RAS# to CAS# delay (Trcd) - 03 Bus Clocks Min RAS# active time (Tras) - 05 Bus Clocks Row precharge time (Trp) - 02 Bus Clocks Row Cycle time (Trc) - 13 Bus Clocks Row refresh cyc time (Trfc) - 16 Bus Clocks Row to Row delay (Trrd) - 03 Bus Clocks Write recovery time (Twr) - 03 Bus Clocks Write to Read delay (Twtr) - 02 Bus Clocks Read to Write delay (Trwt) - 03 Bus Clocks Refresh Period (Tref) - Auto Write CAS Latency (Twcl) - Auto DRAM Bank Interleave - Enabled DQS Skew Control - Auto DQS Skew Value - 0 DRAM Drive Strength - Auto DRAM Data Drive Strength - Level 2 Max Async Latency - 8.0 Nano Seconds DRAM Response Time - Fast Read Preamble Time - 6.0 Nano Seconds IdleCycle Limit - 256 Cycles Dynamic Counter - Disable R/W Queue Bypass - 16 x Bypass Max - 04 x 32 Byte Granularity - Disable(4 Bursts) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angry_Games Posted August 30, 2005 Posted August 30, 2005 ps I use the 6/23-2 version of the bios, and yellow DIMM slots, and most the 7/04-2BT bios (beta also) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
David A. Leon Posted August 31, 2005 Posted August 31, 2005 The surest way to know is to swap your current ram for some other sticks which are known to be good for certain. If your buddy can lend you his sticks for 30 minutes you can know for sure. PC3200 is pretty common these days and there are litterally millions of PCs that have been up and running well for a year or more with such ram. Borrowing a pair of road-tested sticks will do you a lot good. If the roadtest sticks fail, you have a bad mobo. If the roadtest sticks succeed in booting to Windows, you have bad ram. Before testing, I would reinstall Windows with the known good sticks to make sure you have a good system image. Nothing can screw up an OS install like a pair of marginal sticks. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevek Posted August 31, 2005 Posted August 31, 2005 If it is a bad mobo, I have two additional questions: 1) What does DFI do? Do I take it up with newegg.com or DFI themselves to get a replacement 2) Since I used the stock heatsink/fan with the AMD CPU and it came with thermal paste on it (which I've never used before) How do I remove the Heatsink/Fan from the CPU without damaging it now that the paste has adhered? Thanks again Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevek Posted August 31, 2005 Posted August 31, 2005 David, I attempted your suggestion first (It was easier, a friend ran to my room with 2x512 Corsair sticks) and they ran at the default "optimized" settings (that my OCZ sticks would not run at...) So here's my question: Is this possibly due at all to the fact that his are 512MB sticks and mine are 1GB sticks? Or is it simply that my RAM is not very compatable with my board? Thanks again for any help. Edit: Angry_Games I tried all of your settings, and while on the first attempt I was able to boot into windows, it refused to load the audio-drivers, ethernet drivers, and it tooks 25ish minutes to get to the desktop (from power-on) The second time I tried to boot with your settings I got the BSOD again... Any other ideas? = Thanks again again... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angry_Games Posted August 31, 2005 Posted August 31, 2005 The surest way to know is to swap your current ram for some other sticks which are known to be good for certain. If your buddy can lend you his sticks for 30 minutes you can know for sure. PC3200 is pretty common these days and there are litterally millions of PCs that have been up and running well for a year or more with such ram. Borrowing a pair of road-tested sticks will do you a lot good. If the roadtest sticks fail, you have a bad mobo. If the roadtest sticks succeed in booting to Windows, you have bad ram. Before testing, I would reinstall Windows with the known good sticks to make sure you have a good system image. Nothing can screw up an OS install like a pair of marginal sticks. this is incorrect for the most part on our overclocking Lanparty boards...there is no other motherboard with this kind of DRAM configuration available, and we get the common complaint that "this memory work(ed)/(s) fine on my (Asus/Giga/Epox/Abit/MSI/etc) motherboard but it wont work on the DFI NF4". with these Lanparty boards, they do not run AUTO anything very well....especially memory...they are designed for tweaking and overclocking. They will run stock speeds no problem, but they still must be tweaked and most of the important DRAM settings must be set manually, not left on Auto. and even then, some memory, most notably Corsair's modules, still do not work very well at all. other memory that users here have tried and tested true, will work with some good config settings applied. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angry_Games Posted August 31, 2005 Posted August 31, 2005 Edit: Angry_Games I tried all of your settings, and while on the first attempt I was able to boot into windows, it refused to load the audio-drivers, ethernet drivers, and it tooks 25ish minutes to get to the desktop (from power-on) The second time I tried to boot with your settings I got the BSOD again... Any other ideas? = Thanks again again... try these settings then: Genie BIOS Settings: FSB Bus Frequency - 200 LDT/FSB Frequency Ratio - AUTO CPU/FSB Frequency Ratio - AUTO PCI eXpress Frequency - 100Mhz CPU VID StartUp Value - 1.500v CPU VID Control - 1.200v CPU VID Special Control - Above VID * 113% LDT Voltage Control - 1.20v Chip Set Voltage Control - 1.50v DRAM Voltage Control - 2.80v DRAM Configuration Settings: DRAM Frequency Set - 200=RAM/FSB:01/01 Command Per Clock (CPC) - Enable CAS Latency Control (Tcl) - 2.5 RAS# to CAS# delay (Trcd) - 03 Bus Clocks Min RAS# active time (Tras) - 08 Bus Clocks Row precharge time (Trp) - 03 Bus Clocks Row Cycle time (Trc) - 13 Bus Clocks Row refresh cyc time (Trfc) - 16 Bus Clocks Row to Row delay (Trrd) - 03 Bus Clocks Write recovery time (Twr) - 03 Bus Clocks Write to Read delay (Twtr) - 02 Bus Clocks Read to Write delay (Trwt) - 03 Bus Clocks Refresh Period (Tref) - Auto Write CAS Latency (Twcl) - Auto DRAM Bank Interleave - Enabled DQS Skew Control - Auto DQS Skew Value - 0 DRAM Drive Strength - Auto DRAM Data Drive Strength - Level 2 Max Async Latency - 8.0 Nano Seconds DRAM Response Time - Fast Read Preamble Time - 6.0 Nano Seconds IdleCycle Limit - 256 Cycles Dynamic Counter - Disable R/W Queue Bypass - 16 x Bypass Max - 07 x 32 Byte Granularity - Disable(4 Bursts) I would make sure you try memtest and some prime95 on each memory module separately first to make sure there is no problem with each individual memory stick. i would also try to possibly test with a psu other than that Antec...in tech support email and these forums we've simply seen too many Antec psu problems on our boards. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevek Posted August 31, 2005 Posted August 31, 2005 If I get any errors in Memtest what does that mean? How do I diagnose it? Is there a website or thread that has a comprehensive explanation of memtest and its meanings? Thanks Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
silixon Posted August 31, 2005 Posted August 31, 2005 Wow... another person with the same problem I have... So I'm really not insane thinking I'm the only one to have this problem...bytheway what are the errors you get in the BSOD, mine very to about 5 different ones depending on what slots I run the memory in, down to what timeings etc... I'll let you know if I get mine solved and what I did to do so, I'm about to the breaking point also of trying a new MB, but now seeing that we have considerably about the same problem I'm very intrigued... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevek Posted August 31, 2005 Posted August 31, 2005 I like the DFI board, but I am nearly convinced that it is either too advanced for me, or just not compatable with a wide array of things on the market. Since no advice here has helped, I'm sorry to say that I'm leaning toward buying a new motherboard to replace this one... = Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marikhal Posted August 31, 2005 Posted August 31, 2005 I hope that doesn't end up being the case with me. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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